Jan 20 SF demo against King George

[Warning: The following is just a gonzo rant by some queer participant.
For balance, please see a mainstream journalist's report, at:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2005/01/20/state2018EST0159.DTL ]

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[ da rant:]

SF's anti-Bush demo was scheduled for 5pm on Thursday, Jan. 20.
Some folks showed up as early as 2:30 pm, in SF's Civic Center Plaza ("Alioto Pizza").

I arrived a few minutes before 5pm, when the winter sun still shone. "Grannygear" helped me find the queer contingent, led by the unsinkable Tommi Avicolli Mecca.

We queers-and-allies then waited, with ever-diminishing patience, thru a seemingly endless series of tedious speeches, by one faction and mini-faction and micro-faction after another, as night fell.

We were more than ready to march, but the talking class droned on and on, no doubt enthralled by their own hackneyed prose.

(Demonstrators and bystanders alike would be better served at rallies by poetry and music; but the mis-organizing factions know poets and musicians can't be trusted to "stay on message"; a skill which comes more naturally to fascists than to freedom-seekers.)

Eventually a rumor arrived, saying we might begin marching by 6:30pm.

I gave up and went home around 6:15pm. By this time, it was so dark that bystanders couldn't see our banners, costumes and signs -- except for a few placards which were lit up by lightbulbs shining down on them, like framed pictures in an olde-fashioned gallery. And except for a glowing tube which had been cleverly twisted and masked to spell "no".

Meanwhile, the SF Police strutted in excessive numbers, as if hoping to intimidate the protesters.
And at least three helicopters circled overhead (tho I suspect these were cops, I can't prove it).

In my queer opinion (IMQO), the mis-organizers of this event abused the thousands of citizens who had gathered to protest, by forcing us to stand around in the cold and dark at Civic Center for approximately ninety (?) minutes,
instead of letting us march when we were ready.

Yes, I realize that each little sectarian groupuscule demands to present a speaker --
but that could have happened at the end of the march, instead of at the beginning.

And holding a demo at night is usually a bad idea. Without daylight, most demonstrators, and their messages, can't be seen. And darkness encourages those few who want to break windows; which sabotage, in turn, gives cops an alleged "excuse" to attack demonstrators and perhaps bystanders. Some folks think such violence strengthens the movement; but I disagree.

If the mis-organizers wanted a peaceful march, visible to the public, they should have scheduled it for 1pm or 2pm (after church) on Sunday, Jan. 23. (Usually big marches occur on Saturday; but this Saturday, the 22nd, is pre-empted by pro-abortion and anti-abortion demos, which probably will confront each other.)

If they wanted clashes with cops, then "night-time is the right time" for getting in trouble...


Actually, I don't know what these mis-organizers wanted,
except the ego-boost of lecturing to a captive audience.


--- Just Another Queer
20 Jan. 2005
SF
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PS: the 3 established faiths?:

In his second inaugural speech,
King George explicitly pays homage
to the three Abrahamic faiths --
Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.

So now the United States of America
will have THREE established religions?

[ "Poor Olde Mother England" has just one.]

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